Peters v City of White Plains

2009 NY Slip Op 00521 [58 AD3d 824]

January 27, 2009

Appellate Division, Second Department

As corrected through Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Eric Peters et al., Appellants, v City of White Plains et al.,Respondents.

—[*1]Howard Stern, White Plains, N.Y., for appellants.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiffs appeal from an order ofthe Supreme Court, Westchester County (Donovan, J.), entered October 15, 2007, which grantedthe defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

Ordered that order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The plaintiff Eric Peters alleged that he slipped and fell on a ramp in a public parking garageleased and maintained by the City of White Plains. He alleged that the surface of the ramp waswet, uneven, and pitted. The defendants City of White Plains and White Plains Parking Authority(hereinafter the defendants) moved for summary judgment alleging that there was no priorwritten notice of the defect as required by Charter of the City of White Plains §277.

Contrary to the plaintiffs' contention, the Charter requirement that there be priorwritten notice of a defect in a parking garage in order to maintain an action against the City complieswith General Municipal Law § 50-e (4) (see Walker v Town of Hempstead, 84NY2d 360 [1994]). A public parking garage, like a parking lot, falls within the definition of ahighway and is one of the areas in which the General Municipal Law permits a local governmentto require notice of defective conditions (see Walker v Town of Hempstead, 84 NY2d at366, 367; Mendes v Whitney-Floral Realty Corp., 216 AD2d 540, 542 [1995]).

The defendants met their burden of establishing entitlement to summary judgment bydemonstrating [*2]that the City did not have prior written noticeof the defects alleged by the plaintiffs. In opposition, the plaintiffs failed to submit evidence thatraised a triable issue of fact. Accordingly, summary judgment was properly awarded to thedefendants (see Zuckerman v City of New York, 49 NY2d 557 [1980]). Prudenti, P.J.,Dillon, Eng and Leventhal, JJ., concur.